A Review of More Than Free Energy/The Postelles/A B & the Sea @ The Independent...

This is what RAWK should look like...photo by Mike Manson

I hate writing live reviews because my overwhelming sense is that I come off sounding like some self-appointed, taste-making blowhard.  The band did this and played that and you should have been there, or, it was a a complete waste of electricity, time, pot, alcohol, and pills.  They were transcendent or suffered from buzzy expectations that were impossibly inflated by jerk-offs like me, who prattle on endlessly about each new band as if they were the answer to prayers that never need to be heard by any deity worth his impossibly inflated status in the human imagination.  Just words pixelated on a web page to be agreed with or differed or derided but never truly necessary.

Scott Wells casting his line... by Mike Manson

What was necessary was the feeling all three bands playing San Francisco's Independent on January 27th created and put out into the Rawk n Roll universe.  Headliner Free Energy, from Philadelphia, are on tour doing one last North American victory lap for one of 2010's "FUNEST" records Free Energy, before returning to the studio to record a follow-up.  This band gets what it means to be young, free, and seem to truly value the opportunity to play their songs in front of an audience.  To call them infectious is an understatement and I always love the way they can transport me back to a time I was barely even old enough to feel nostalgic about.  Let me tell you, there is NO app for making a person feel that way.  And, searching YouTube videos with a detached reverence in the service of seeking ironic throughlines to your generation's "Cheap Trick", that won't cut it either.  Free Energy get this and go for it, mustaches and all!!  Their songs have BIG hooks that can reel in the biggest hipster marlin on stage before an AC/DC-worthy riff clubs them over the head.  There should be a photo of the band proudly displaying the day's catch, holding some skinny-jeaned, colored Ray Ban wearing, iPhone-documenting hipster upside down by his ankles.  Free Energy are the great fisherman of our time and I was happy to be gutted and filleted and tossed on ice with the rest of "iGeneration".

The Postelles embrace Motown and haberdashery...photo by Mike Manson

NYC's, The Postelles, played a Motown inspired - which seemed inspired by Elvis Costello's Motown inspired album Get Happy - set that was polished and delivered with a dash of self-awareness.  Their songs are extremely consistent and seem destined to provide a soundtrack for young girls who find waify guys that consciously avoid eye contact and fiddle nervously with hats from another era on the top of their soon to be balding heads attractive.  That is not meant to sound snarky, just a reminder that time marches on quickly and being fairly unoriginal in both thought and actions is a precious waste of youthful indiscretion.  Advice to the males in attendance?  Stop being so precious and SACK UP!  These girls want to dance and get laid, not watch you putzing around with gizmos and texting with the people who aren't there with you.

The A B & the Sea...photo by Mike Manson

They grow up so fast...photo by Robert Celli Jr.

Opener, A B and the Sea from San 

Francisco, were joined on stage by another local band The She's.  The nine people on stage age's barely cracked the century mark but played well beyond their years.  This was both impressive and disappointing.  Impressive in that I don't remember bands having the type of equipment and chops that were on display when I was their age.  Disappointing in that I don't remember bands feeling the need to seem so much older and professional and blase at an age when you should be giving your energy away for FREE- to anyone really, like a shotgun blast of naiveté and not giving a FUCK!  It's hard to complain about the sound, which was dialed in and the songwriting was impressive, but it felt a little soulless.

So there is a kind of review of sorts.

Paul Sprangers knows how to work it...photo by Robert Celli Jr.